Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Shawnee Mission School Board race--afraid to discuss the two elephants in the room--(bussing and overpaid admin)--which is how Blue Valley is costing SM middle class homeowners $30 grand in resale value

The northern half of Johnson County (SMSD) is on the verge of making the same disastrous community-destroying mistake KCMO did 50 years ago--sacrificing the middle class to rescue and prop up latchkey apartment kids.

Heather Ousley is willing to bus this boy to force him to teach English to apartment kids whose parents won't speak it.

If liberal labor activist Dems Heather Ousley and Laura Guy are elected to SM school board, will our district become like KCMO's? Including bussing, namecalling and finger-pointing union fights on nightly newscasts?

"Johnson County niceness" is preventing the Nov. 7 school board candidates from telling voters the truth: Blue Valley is kicking our ass on test scores.

When you go to sell your home, the price of your home in Shawnee Mission District could easily drop $30,000! You will have FEWER BUYERS. You will lose out to Blue Valley.

Ultra-liberal union organizers, including Dems Heather Ousley and Laura Guy are using their "aw shucks" Cheshire cat smiles and Peter Pan collars to infiltrate the SM School Board. But make no mistake--their political leanings show they would be much happier living in Westport or KC's Hispanic West Side.

From Heather Ousley's Facebook. She is not in tune with the average Johnson County homeowner and voter.She's a lovely woman--but wants to play Bernie Sanders' social engineering games with your biggest investment, your home. She'd bus your kid to rescue illegal immigrants.

Nobody wants to mention these facts. Intellectually we are ALL committed to "diversity" and "quality education for all". To a point. But if an unwieldy number of kids don't speak English (like 28% in Shawanoe Elementary--whose immigrant parents oppose "assimilation"), then middle class families in MY neighborhood have to fork over thousands for private school tuition, over and above the $14,000 per pupil we spend on every child in Kansas. Or they vote with their wallet, and move out south.

I know of 17 kids in my HOA--who either are home-schooled or attend Good Shepherd across the street, or Maranatha Academy, or Adventist, or Padre Pio. Why? They're tired of their kids being ignored in crowded public school classrooms --and used as free teachers' assistants. Middle class kids of average intelligence, used as pawns. And the bright ones? Completely ignored.

(Whereas Padre Pio, whose tuition is $3595 per year, runs away with ALL the STEM awards!)
So clearly, money is not the only solution. It's less overpaid administrator bullies. More teachers in the classroom. But also teaching values, not just teaching to the test.

NOBODY RUNNING FOR SCHOOL BOARD WANTS TO DISCUSS IT.
NOT EVEN HEATHER OUSLEY, THE VERY LIBERAL DEMOCRAT BACKED BY TRI-COUNTY LABOR COUNCIL and the NEA.

1. If union organizer/ultra-liberal Dem Heather Ousley is elected, take her at her word. The eventual result will be bussing of middle class kids to prop up the test scores of disadvantaged kids.

She's already said as much in the debate two weeks ago: "I refuse to allow any disadvantaged school to have any more disadvantaged kids assigned to it." So even if the Title 1 (free school lunch) school is surrounded by a growing number of subsidized apartments--what's the outcome? She's committed to bussing in higher achievers. Gerrymandered districts. Using our kids to artificially serve as teachers' assistants in crowded classrooms. And prop up test scores.

Did homeowners learn NOTHING from Judge Clark and KCMO's disaster than led to massive flight to Johnson County?

2. Meanwhile, 82% of all VOTERS, who are older, do not have kids in K-12. They moved to Joco for the good schools and--LONG TERM-- to build and preserve the value of their biggest asset: their home.

FACT: We are losing out to Blue Valley district. Huge migration of families. It's undisputed.

Up first: Replacing the disgraced bully, Jim Hinson, the former SMSD superintendent who had the affair (and DUI?) with the married school board President who hired him. He gave a giant contract to her daughter's boss to manage the district's benefits. He was a despot who skirted Open Meetings. He did not allow any "negativity" to be discussed at board meetings.

The current board rubberstamped everything he demanded. Meeting in diads in secret, in violation of KORA, to achieve a "wink and nod" consent agenda. Puppets. Who propped up outrageous admin salaries. Shame on them.

What we need: People commited to change rather than headline grabbing. With the quiet resolve to:
1. Slash administrative costs.
2. Put more teachers in the classroom.
3. Without bussing or turning the district into another battleground like KCMO's school board is.

I am voting for Mandi Serrone Hunter, at large, and against "Hanoi Heather" Ousley.

Hunter is a moderate Republican. A real estate attorney with high scores in her career--so she "gets" that in Johnson County, we have mastered the teeter totter--an artful balance between social values and property values. Mandi Hunter, daughter of beloved Lenexa Councilman Lou Serrone, uses discretion when she speaks in public-- but beneath her smile is a velvet hammer.

Hunter is resolved to restoring Shawnee Mission to competitive greatness. An excellent education for all. Without bussing or discord. Not whining and lobbying before the cameras about a magic bullet of millions more in taxes--but a much smarter allocation of the money we already give our school board.

Whereas Heather Ousley is a publicity seeker. She "walked 60 miles to Topeka". That's clearly a stunt. Half crazy. Fell into the arms of her hubbie, a state rep, Jarrod Ousley. In the primary, didn't we just get RID of Cindy Neighbor, another know-it-all convinced we needed her as both a state rep and on the school board??

Mandi Hunter is smart. Her style is to work behind the scenes for concensus and improvement. But she does not buy into that liberal babble-speak that simply handing millions more over to the contentious NEA will make OUR district work any better than KCMO, which is the world's longest Model Cities rumpus room in America.

The SMSD is rotten at the TOP, not the middle. We can't afford to let the NEA union organizers (Ousley and Laura Guy) turn the northern half of Johnson County into a real estate war zone.